Is Jesus Simply a Retelling of the Osiris Mythology?

Over the
past two weeks, I’ve examined the similarities between Jesus, Mithras and Horus. Early mythological characters are
sometimes offered by skeptics in an attempt to argue Jesus is nothing more than
a re-creation and retelling of the ancient “rising and dying” mythologies
embraced by a number of primitive cultures. Movies like Zeitgeist: The Movie and The God Who Wasn’t There, have capitalized on this strategy,
highlighting every possible similarity, while ignoring the critical
differences. Osiris is mentioned in both of these movies as yet another
iteration of the rising and dying Savior preceding the appearance of Jesus.
Skeptics claim Osiris and Jesus were identical in a number of important ways.
According to these doubters, Osiris was called “Lord of Lords”, “King of Kings”, “God of Gods”,
“Resurrection and the Life”, “Good Shepherd”, “Eternity and Everlastingness”,
and the god who “made men and women to be ‘born again’.” Osiris’ birth was
allegedly announced by three “wise men”; the three stars Mintaka, Anilam, and
Alnitak in the belt of Orion. Osiris had a star in the east, Sirius, that
signified his birth, and his followers enjoyed a Eucharist ceremony of sorts (in
which his flesh was eaten in the form of communion cakes of wheat). Skeptics
also claim Osiris taught much of the same material as Jesus; the claim many
teachings are identically the same, word for word. Osiris was allegedly killed
and resurrected, providing hope every believer might also be resurrected into eternal
life. These similarities, when offered in isolation, seem dramatic. But are
they true, and if so, what bearing does this have on the historicity of Jesus?

Claim: Osiris was called “Lord of Lords”,
“King of Kings”, “God of Gods”, “Resurrection and the Life”, “Good Shepherd”,
“Eternity and Everlastingness”, and the god who “made men and women to be “born
again”Truth: These names for Jesus were not used by Osiris, who was called,
“Lord of All”, the “Good Being”, “Lord of the Underworld”, “Lord (King) of
Eternity”, “Ruler of the Dead”, “Lord of the West”, “Great One”, “He who takes
seat,” “the Begetter”, “the Ram”, “Great Word”, “Chief of the Spirits”, “Ruler
of Everlastingness”, “Living God,” “God above the gods.” These rather general
names were not uncommon for many other deities as well.

Claim: Osiris’ birth was announced by
Three Wise Men: the three stars Mintaka, Anilam, and Alnitak in the belt of
Orion, and Osiris had a star in the east (Sirius) that signified his birthTruth: It is true that some scholars connect Osiris with Orion, but they
don’t stretch the imagination to call the three stars of the belt “wise men”,
and there is no mention of an eastern star in the Osiris mythology.

Claim: Osiris had a Eucharist ceremony of
sorts, in which his flesh was eaten in the form of communion cakes of wheatTruth: There is no evidence for this
in the research of the scholars

Claim: Osiris taught much of the same
material as Jesus; many teachings are identically the same, word for wordTruth: There is absolutely no evidence
of any of this, and the “wisdom” of Osiris is still available for review.

Claim: Osiris was killed and later
resurrected, providing hope every believer might also be resurrected into eternal
life
Truth: Osiris was murdered and his body was then dismembered and scattered.
Later, his body pieces were recovered and rejoined, and he was rejuvenated.
Osiris then journeyed to the underworld, where he became the lord of the dead.
He did not resurrect with a glorified
body and walk with men on earth, as did Jesus. He was not alive again, as was Jesus, but was instead a “dead” god who
never returned among the living

From this
quick examination of the Osiris tradition, we can see he was not called by the same names used for
Jesus, and while he was connected by some to the Orion constellation, there is no mention of three wise men in the
Osiris birth story. In addition, Osiris was not
celebrated with a Eucharist. He was murdered and reassembled, but was not resurrected to glory and life as was
Jesus. As always, the first step in refuting such claims is to simply
investigate the attributes carefully. Beyond this, we must also recognize the
expectations and yearnings people have related to the existence of God. The
Bible rightly describes this yearning and the innate knowledge each of us has
related to God’s existence (Romans 1:18-20 and 2:12-16). We shouldn’t be
surprised ancient people (created in the image of God) would think deeply about
the nature of this God. Many alleged similarities between pre-Christian
mythologies and Jesus are extremely general in nature and would be expected
from anyone considering the existence of a Divine Creator. Primitive cultures
interested in God’s nature reasoned He would have the ability to perform
miracles, teach humans and form disciples. These universal expectations fail to
invalidate the historicity of Jesus. As Paul recognized on Mars Hill (Acts
17:22-31), men thought deeply about the nature of God prior to His arrival as
Jesus. Sometimes they imagined the details correctly, sometimes they didn’t.

In the end,
similarities between Jesus and mythological precursors fail to invalidate the
historicity of Jesus. The historical veracity of Jesus is determined from the
evidence supporting the reliability of the eyewitness accounts. Jesus is not
simply a retelling of Mithraic mythology. While Mithras is no longer worshiped,
Christianity continues to thrive. Why? Because the
Christian records are reliable. Skeptics sometimes portray Osiris as
something he isn’t in order to keep us from believing in Jesus as something He
is. But the reliable Biblical record establishes the Deity of Jesus in a way no
other ancient mythological text could ever hope to achieve.